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Friday, August 23, 2013

The Girls

This was the day we took the girls to get their passports. It was back in May. Since then, their passports have come in the mail and now they are about to be sent back out again to get Chinese Visas in them. We are taking Leah and Molly with us when we go to China. Daniel is staying on American soil. He'll stay with grandparents and a couple nights at some friends houses - he'll have a blast. It will rip my heart out to get on a plane without him. It will take Jesus giving me strength just to get me to the airplane without him.... but that isn't what this blog post is about.

This post is to address the fact that our girls are coming with us to China! We are so excited we will have them with us. This decision is different for every family. Some decide not to take any of their kids and some take them all (even the littlest ones). After much thought, discussion, and prayer, this is what we decided for our family.

We want the girls to see where their brother has been. Maybe one day they will be able to tell him about their memories from that place. We hope it will help them to bond with him and connect with him to see his history. We think it may be good for him that they are with us, too. He will be coming from a place of many kids and it may be helpful to have the girls with us to ease that transition a little bit.

Another reason we are taking them is that we want them to see China - a very beautiful and different place. We want them to hear the Chinese language, taste the Chinese food, see the Chinese buildings. We want this place to be more than just a place on the map for them.

But most of all, we want them to know God as bigger than just their "normal" experience of him. We want them to see him at work. We want to talk to them about visiting orphans in their affliction (James 1:27) and then actually do that with them. We want their faith to be deepened by an experience of a God who goes beyond cultures. We pray that God works in their hearts deeply during this trip!

Will it be a harder trip to have them with us? Yes! It will require more patience and more money (we are not raising funds for this as we feel we should pay for this part), but the benefits of it make it worth it.